Obscurity, much?/TV Tokyo
Despite being one of the most recognizable channels from Japan, TV Tokyo still has some pretty obscure TV anime. Examples from the Pokémon anime are on Pokémon's own page. Further, Weekly Shonen Jump-based TV Tokyo anime are on WSJ's own page as well. *Bakugan is fairly obscure in its country of origin, but is really popular among anime fans, especially in Canada and the United States. **It got to the point where the final season of the original series only aired in international markets. **''Battle Planet'' premiered in Canada and the States before Japan got it. *Beyblade's current season was, as of October 2016, fairly obscure in the US. Then Disney XD picked up the rights. The anime's gotten fairly popular since. *Chance Pop Session in the United States. Once ADV went bankrupt, no one else wanted it and it fell out-of-print. Why? Because it was a shoujo that wasn't one of the most popular- ADV only dubbed and released it because they were only interested in DVD releases for series with its genre (the same reason why Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch did not get a DVD release). This, despite its overall premise and the tragedy elements scattered throughout the anime. If you're wanting the individual volumes on Region 1 DVD, get ready to shell out big sums of cash just to get the whole series. The thinpak boxset can be picked up secondhand on the cheap, though... *In America, more people know about the Chi's Sweet Home anime than the original manga, despite the series being a seinen (those proved to sell well in America in recent years). The fact that Vertical's translation of said manga may have long gone out of print does not help the manga's case. As for the anime, only one season (the 2016 anime) was ever dubbed, and the only physical releases are of the 2008 anime and Chi's New Address courtesy of Discotek Media. After all of that, the only way to get merchandise based off the show in America is via online sites (most notably eBay and Amazon) or anime/comic conventions. **The anime is also completely obscure in the UK. Post-''New Address'', this can also apply in Australia. *The lowering ratings of Cowboy Bebop on Toonami may be for the following: A.) the anime's becoming obscure, or B.) the series is readily available on physical media and streaming courtesy of Funimation. People tend to pick the latter because Cowboy Bebop is still known to the American public, just not in pop culture anymore. *Digimon Universe: Applimonsters, despite coming from a long line of anime previously dubbed into English, is this outside of Japan and Europe. *Fancy Lala is another case hit by the closure of Bandai Entertainment: America isn't big on magical girl shows, and its anime fans prefer deconstructive magical girls to the traditional magical girl formula (outside Sailor Moon and Cardcaptor Sakura). It's not hard to find individual volumes on the cheap, but as for the complete collection... *GoLion within its native Japan, though it's well-known as Voltron outside Japan. *''Hamtaro: Anything beyond the first series outside of Japan. Most non-Japanese fanart based on ''Hamtaro happens to be based off the one installment of it that was exported to the US. The same goes for merchandise- if it isn't based off the 2000 anime designs, it most certainly will be completely obscure in America. **And if you thought that was as obscure as Hamtaro can go, the original children's light novels themselves are also completely obscure- and outside of Japan, almost completely forgotten. **And of course, the run on Cartoon Network's morning block was this as well, contrasted to the Toonami (not the Adult Swim version, the original) run. Same with its run on Fox Kids/Jetix in the UK. *''Jimoto ga Japan'', aka I'm From Japan, is one of Weekly Shonen Jump's most obscure manga stateside. So much so, that its anime is, so-far, Japan-only. See here on how this happened. *Jewelpet outside Japan, and Americans who know about it found out about it online. The reason for this trope happening to that anime is because of Sega and Sanrio being afraid of getting sued for making a franchise similar to Webkinz, a popular franchise in America at the time. If you get past that, the two anime companies most likely to want it went bust. Despite all of this, plushies managed to cross the ocean, but are mostly limited to Sanrio stores and online sites nowadays. **It's not just limited to the US. Sanrio once had a UK site for the franchise. Then Puella Magi Madoka Magica happened out of their control, and the anime wasn't released in the UK either. **Concerning Jewelpet characters, any Jewelpet not named Ruby, Sapphie, Garnet, Diana, or Labra tend to be semi-obscure at best, although the majority of them appeared in at least one Jewelpet video game (though the games were only released in Japan thanks to the above). ***The Sweetspets. Rarely, if ever, was a plush based on a specific Sweetspet made, and no merchandise based on said Sweetspets are on most online sites anymore. **Allegedly, an English dub by Omni Productions does exist (for Southeast Asia), but if it does, it's most likely lost. **Sellers of Jewelpet merch on eBay do not take kindly to Canadian fans, either. Usually they'll sell to the US, Europe, and Australia only, or exclude North America (sans the US since eBay is a US-based website) from shipping altogether. And if you're shopping on Amazon, that's a completely different story. *On the other hand, Kamisama Minarai: Himitsu no Cocotama is almost completely forgotten outside of Japan and parts of Asia and the Arab World, especially if you're into the toys. There's no way to (legally) see the anime in North America unless you get the Region A Blu-ray from Japan (and even then get ready to shell out big sums of cash. After all of that, don't expect it to be subbed). As for the toys? While in Japan Cocotama has almost as much presence as Pokémon, elsewhere merch is nonexistent (or at least not as widely-seen as Pokémon merch). Your only choices are importing straight from Japan, and sometimes not even then. *Powerpuff Girls Z is semi-obscure in the United States. If you missed it when it aired on the Latin American Cartoon Network feed (albeit in Spanish), or wanted it in English, you would need to search the internet. *This proved a major factor in the undoing of Rilu Rilu Fairilu- even in Japan, the ratings were not as strong as other Sanrio anime. The premiere of Aggretsuko (which got the opposite treatment Fairilu got) only amplified matters, and by the end of its third season (which aired on Tokyo MX instead of TV Tokyo due to TV Tokyo giving the slot to another anime), Fairilu was over and done with. **Unlike the overstock Amazon had on its predecessor when that anime ended back in 2015, Fairilu merch is almost non-existant, or expensive, on online sites. What happened above did not help. *This is possibly one of the reasons why the Shugo Chara! anime never got an official English dub, despite getting an official North American release and the manga having an official English translation. *Soul Eater Not! is less popular than the original manga. Despite this, Funimation stepped in and gave it an English dub, just like the original Soul Eater anime. *Sugarbunnies is obscure among English-speaking anime fans, to the point where the anime doesn't have English subs. Not helping is that Sugarbunnies is a Sanrio franchise. *When Supernatural Battles Became Commonplace, as per the course of Trigger anime, was popular enough to get a dub. However, as seen on the general anime/manga page, it wasn't enough to get the light novels or the manga released.